The Negative Effects of TV Advertising on Adolescent Women Specifically Body and Self Image

The Negative Effects of TV Advertising on Adolescent Women Specifically Body Self Image
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Title
Instructor’s Name
Date:
The Negative Effects of TV Advertising on Adolescent Women Specifically Bodyand Self-Image
Introduction
The issue of television (TV) advertising has generated heated debates regarding its impact on adolescent women. While TV adverts constitute a critical source of information, critics are wary of its negative impact on adolescent women. It is noteworthy that the advertisement sector often focuses on adolescent women as one of its viable market segments, since they are easily influenced by the media portrayal of an “ideal” woman. Such women are of great importance to marketers since they can spend a significant proportion of their income on products being advertised on TV. Similarly, adolescent women who depend on their parents/guardians can easily influence the latter to spend on household products that appeal to them. Another thing that makes an adolescent women a critical target market segment for marketers is their ability influence the society’s lifestyle as well as overall trends. According to Osad’an and Hanna (2015:37), adolescent women have become more aware of their respective body images mainly due to the body images of the models portrayed in advertising. With regard to body image, Dinc and Alisinanoglu (2010:65) assert that the body is often in the limelight as well as open to the evaluations of other people. As a psychological construct, the body consists of perceptional, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions. Attitudes towards one’s own body are integrals to such dimensions. Dinc and Alisinanoglu (2010:65) perceive the body image as a multidimensional structure that represents behaviors, thoughts and feelings relating to an individual’s own physical features. In addition to its influence of body image, TV advertising also has a great influence of adolescent women’s self-esteem. Particularly, such women’s self-esteem declines as theyrealize that their body images do not conform to the body images of the models portrayed on television advertisements. This research paper examines the negative influence of TV advertising on adolescent women, with a special focus on their self-image and body image.
Research Question
This research is guided by the following research question:
What are the negative effects of television portrayal of the “thin ideal” female images of an adolescent women’s body and self-image?
Literature Review
Different researchers define the concept of body image differently. It refers to one’s feelings, perceptions, and thoughts regarding her or his body. Since the body is the first thing that people notice in social interaction, it is largely subject to other people’s compliments and criticisms. As such, body image forms the basis of developing overall self-respect. It is a psychological construct consisting of behavioral, perceptional, and cognitive perceptions. A multifaceted structure denotes thoughts, behaviors and feelings regarding one’s own physical features (Dinc and Alisinanoglu 2010:65). The body image develops in an ongoi...